Monday, May 31, 2010

This has been a fun long weekend - started out Thursday night - Laura came to visit and we had dinner and went to see Sex and the City2 with a a bunch of squealing women. Entertaining, but not great cinema, and I think we can say the franchise has officially jumped the shark.

Friday morning - we went to the vet and confirmed what I had been suspecting but not talking about - Scout is not pregnant. Not sure why - probably bad timing, trying to get her bred around all the hustle and bustle of going to the specialty. One thing we know is that it was not Lego's fault - he bred a bitch the week before and she is pregnant. Disappointed, but we will try again in the fall, which truthfully should be a much better time for me, work-wise.

We buried our blues by shopping until we dropped. So worn out, Laura just decided to stay another night. Saturday the painters showed up and did a great job on painting the rest of the house and taking care of a few little carpentry needs around here. They finished up this morning and I am very pleased with the results.

It's a rainy afternoon, and the all day "Hoarders" marathon on A&E has inspired me to get back on the clearing out the basement project.

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend, and don't forget to entry the CSN Stores Giveaway before midnight tonight!!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

It seems like most of my shopping dollars are spent online these days. I always shop first online – and only as a last resort will I venture out to the big retail stores, or, heaven forbid, the dreaded mall.

I recently found a new favorite place to shop online, called CSN Stores – which is actually kind of like a virtual mega-mall – over 200 stores. Two things I like about these stores – first, most of the items I have looked at have free shipping. Now you all know I am a beancounter, and I know that there is really no such thing as “free shipping” – someone has to be paid to bring you what you order. What it really means is that shipping is already priced in – so there are no surprises when you go to check out. Secondly, they take PayPal, which is my preferred way to pay.

My first purchase from a CSN store were shoes from Shoesgotsole.com – in my hard to find ski-length size. My last purchase was this cedar storage bench for my deck. One thing I love about it is the story behind the company that made it - Cedar Creek was developed to provide work and career opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

I have been doing some remodeling and rearranging at my house, and I have decided to move my sewing room to the basement, and returning that room to a guest room. (This will keep me from having to arm wrestle guests when I try to get them to sleep in the beds and let me sleep on the couch – you and you know who I am talking about!) Anyhow – I decided to put a twin sleeper sofa in this smallish room, and lo and behold, CSNSofas.com has a huge sleeper sofa collection. Here’s one called "Ludlow" and is the one I have just about decided on, in leaf green:

OK – enough about my shopping habits – you came here for the GIVEAWAY! The nice folks at CSN said that I can give away a $40 gift card, which can be used in any of their 200+stores! The contest is open to those in US and Canada. Many items have free shipping, but be aware that some items may have shipping charges or in the case of Canadian readers, international fees, for certain products.

All of the items that I posted in Wednesday’s teaser are available in one of the CSN stores for less than $40. Look at some of the other cool stuff I found, for my dog friends in particular:

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Baby Spencer came home to me at 8 weeks old and my life was never to be the same. I knew nothing of obedience trials or that seemingly sane people actually drove hours every week to go out in the country and to let their dogs play with sheep. I had seen agility on ESPN but it never entered my mind that I would ever give it a try myself.

I had no idea that there was a whole world of people out there doing all this craziness or that so many of those people would come to be my best friends.

Monday, May 17, 2010

You know that old saying about what you do when life hands you lemons? I felt like a big old lemon landed on my head when were at the Specialty. The Megan was just about to start and my phone rings - and I recognize the number as one of my neighbors. She was calling to tell me that a huge tree in my backyard had fallen on my house. The tree had so many leaves and branches that they could not tell what the damage was underneath.

Once everything was cleared away, things were not nearly as bad as they could have been. The rail on the deck had to be replaced, along with the rickety gate (literally held together with bungees), and the leaky gutter that already needed repair was pulled away from the house. A few shingles needed to be replaced as well on the corner of the house.

So I ended up having the insurance company pay to fix things that already needed fixing. The new gate is so much better than the original one ever was. Two sides of the house were completely repainted because of relatively minor scratches. The painting contractor told me that he had enough paint left over to completely paint the rest of the house. He made me a great deal on the labor, so I am getting the whole house painted for a fraction of what it would have cost in a normal situation. But here's the great part - he also threw into the bid some minor carpentry work that I needed and had not been able to get anyone else to take care of for me.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

I spent $200 to sign me and Spencer up for a working slot in an obedience workshop given by a nationally well known trainer. Auditors only paid $40 to sit in and listen.

We started at 9:00 this morning, and as of 4:15 this afternoon, 9 of the 20 working teams just got to do a few broad jump exercises with very little if any personalized attention. Otherwise, all we have done is to sit and listen to her ramble about various things.

My iPhone is about to go dead because I have spent so much time surfing. Tomorrow we will just be more productive at home, I think.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Monday, May 10, 2010

While we were in Gettysburg, Heidi helped Cheryl set up her own blog, Presentation by Cheryl. (Cheryl was Scout's handler, and she has been showing Rush for Heidi, and showed several of Shirley H's dogs at the Specialty.)

Heidi set everything up so that Cheryl could post from the road on her Blackberry, without a lot of bells and whistles on her blog yet. We want her to get some positive feedback and get into the blogging habit, so when you get a chance, go visit her blog and leave her a nice comment.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

As I have mentioned previously, I have been cleaning out my Mom's house. As we were going through her clothes, I noticed that she had a lot of "show clothes" - you know, machine washable, pockets, comfy yet dressy enough clothes. The daughter of a friend of hers came over one day and took them all to her house, but it turned out she she could not wear most of them, so today I picked them up and brought them to my house.

I thought I would put an offer out to anyone who might be interested in them - I would love to see them get some good use. Are they the most fashionable clothes in the world - no, but you probably would not be cited by the Dog Show Fashion Police if you wore them, either. And, the price is right.

I don't want anything for them, if you think anything might work for you or someone you know, email me at liveswithcorgi ``@`` gmail and we'll figure out how to get them to you.

Most are sizes 14 and 16. Mom's about 5'8", so most thing are going to on the longer side and some are tall sizes. I know some folks actually buy things and hem them up - no one in my family has ever had to do that. Here is a list of the items - I will get some pictures up on my picasa site later. All are machine washable unless otherwise noted.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

The deck rail was torn off, but the deck floor survived. The gate to the back yard also gone, but I have rigged an ex-pen to secure the dogs from escaping the back yard. Gutters are also torn from the corner of the house.

The good news? The pod is unharmed and the structure of the house is fine. I was already planning to replace the gutters and the back gate, which was rickety anyway. Now my good friends at Farm Bureau will do it for me!